A New Jersey state court judge appeared skeptical Thursday of a fired Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari staffer's argument that an arbitration agreement she signed as part of the firm's onboarding process is invalid because it was never explained to her, and she has no recollection of signing it.
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Judge Hints Signature Is Evidence Staffer Waived Jury Trial

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey state court judge appeared skeptical Thursday of a fired Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari staffer's argument that an arbitration agreement she signed as part of the firm's onboarding process is invalid because it was never explained to her, and she has no recollection of signing it.

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Calif. Sues Trump Over 'Wildly Partisan' EV Waiver Repeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The California attorney general and 10 other states sued the Trump administration in federal court Thursday, minutes after President Donald Trump signed resolutions repealing California's Clean Air Act waiver that allowed the state to establish its own vehicle emissions standards, slamming the resolutions as unconstitutional, irrational and "wildly partisan."

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NJ Judge Clarifies Provisions Of New Affordable Housing Law

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state judge has denied a bid from a coalition of 29 Garden State municipalities to block a number of provisions of a new affordable housing directive, but he provided clarity on some parts of the directive, and the coalition is calling the clarification a win.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Judiciary Committee Clears Squires For Full Senate Vote

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved former Goldman Sachs intellectual property attorney John Squires to serve as U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director on Thursday, putting his nomination in the hands of the full Senate.

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THIRD CIRCUIT

3rd Circ. Will Reconsider Shipbuilder's Ch. 11 Reopening Bid

By Matthew Santoni

The Third Circuit said Thursday that it will reconsider whether to reopen Congoleum Corp.'s 2003 Chapter 11 bankruptcy so the bankruptcy court, not a district court, can say whether Congoleum affiliate Bath Iron Works should share liability for cleaning up a polluted New Jersey river.

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Brief

Deal Ends Freedom Mortgage's Appeal Of $23M Verdict

By George Woolston

Freedom Mortgage and a Virginia mortgage subservicer have reached a deal to resolve the mortgage company's appeal of a $23 million verdict over a subservicing agreement gone wrong, according to a Thursday filing in the Third Circuit.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Attacks On Judicial Independence Tend To Manifest In 3 Ways

Attacks on judicial independence now run the gamut from gross (bald-faced interference) to systemic (structural changes) to insidious (efforts to undermine public trust), so lawyers, judges and the public must recognize the fateful moment in which we live and defend the rule of law every day, says Jim Moliterno at Washington and Lee University.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Tottenham Hotspur FC kick off against Manchester United co-owner Ineos Automotive following a soured sponsorship deal, Acer and Nokia clash over patents for video coding technology, and two investors reignite litigation against the founders of an AI exercise bike business that unlawfully pocketed $1.2 million in investments to fund their own lifestyles. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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IRS, Law Firm Settle $790K Worker Credit Refund Suit

By Anna Scott Farrell

The Internal Revenue Service settled a lawsuit seeking more than $790,000 in pandemic-era worker tax credits by a law firm that had claimed the agency was delaying paying out, according to a dismissal order Friday by a Pennsylvania federal court.

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7 Willkie Partners Join Cooley Over Trump EO Deal

By Aebra Coe

Seven partners have left Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, including both managing partners of the firm's San Francisco office, to join Cooley LLP, reportedly over their former employer's decision to strike a deal with the Trump administration related to a potential executive order.

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Jackson Walker, Ex-Judge Facing Class Action Over Romance

By Catherine Marfin

A former bankruptcy judge and Jackson Walker LLP have been hit with another lawsuit over the judge's secret romance with a former firm partner, this time a proposed class action from a group of bondholders of financial company GWG Holdings Inc.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Compliance experts say corporate leaders with business interests south of the border are worried about possible terrorism-related charges under the Trump administration for inadvertently working with the cartels. Meanwhile, the head of Glass Lewis pushed back against allegations from some lawmakers concerning the firm's "expansive, opaque and ideologically driven influence" on companies. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Beltway Moves: Torridon Law, MoFo, V&E

By Alison Knezevich

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed to Torridon Law PLLC this week in one of the latest high-profile moves in the Washington, D.C., legal industry over the first half of June.

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Grassley Budget Bill Calls For More Use Of Injunction Bonds

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has released his portion of the budget reconciliation text, which would bolster the use of injunction bonds to raise the stakes for plaintiffs seeking to halt White House initiatives.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Institute for Justice, Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP, Spears & Filipovits LLC and attorney Lisa Lambert lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution's supremacy clause cannot shield the federal government from Federal Tort Claims Act suits.

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Akerman Seeks To Move Malpractice Suits From Medical Cos.

By Madison Arnold

Akerman LLP has asked to have two malpractice cases from medical laboratories moved from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade County, where the firm's related unpaid fees case against Rennova Health Inc. is being litigated.

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Former NJ Deputy AG Claims Office Fired Him For His ADHD

By Beverly Banks

A former deputy attorney general who worked on environmental cases for New Jersey accused the state of retaliating against him when he sought accommodations for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and later terminated him for his disability.

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2nd Circ. Won't Rehear Trump Appeal Of $5M Assault Verdict

By Cara Salvatore

The full Second Circuit refused Friday to revisit President Donald Trump's challenge to writer E. Jean Carroll's $5 million sexual assault finding against him, with two judges dissenting.

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Ex-Attorney Cops To Tax Evasion In Massachusetts

By Anna Scott Farrell

A former attorney pled guilty to tax evasion in a Massachusetts federal court Friday after prosecutors accused him of transferring money to his wife to hide his earnings and using his business accounts to pay for guns and jewelry.

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Wash. High Court Suspends Atty Amid Delays In Bar Probe

By Rachel Riley

The Washington State Supreme Court has suspended an Evergreen state attorney's legal license, at the state bar association's request, for allegedly stalling disciplinary investigations into her work representing student families in two federal lawsuits against school districts.

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The Law Firm Loophole: How Debt Cos. Snare NC Consumers

By Daniel Connolly

A view of Carolina Legal Services' website as it appeared in 2019. The law firm has since closed. (Obtained via the Wayback Machine, a project of the Internet Archive.)

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

A&O Shearman

Addleshaw Goddard

Akerman LLP

Bandas Law Firm

Blake Morgan LLP

Blank Rome

Blume Forte

Boies Schiller

Brabners LLP

Brown Rudnick

Brownstein Hyatt

Burr & Forman

Clement & Murphy

Clyde & Co

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cramer & Anderson

DLA Piper

Davis Wright Tremaine

Debevoise & Plimpton

Dentons

Dilworth Paxson

Domnick Cunningham

Donnelly Conroy

Duane Morris

Fenwick & West

Foster Garvey

Fox Rothschild

Friedman Kaplan

Genova Burns

Gibson Dunn

Gillam Smith

Goldman Davis

Greenberg Traurig

Haynes Boone

Higgs LLP

Jackson Walker LLP

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

K&L Gates

Keker Van Nest & Peters

King Moench

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Laytons LLP

Manatt Phelps

Martin LLP

Mayer Brown

McGuireWoods

Michelman & Robinson

Mitchell & Shapiro

Morgan Lewis

Morris Nichols

Morrison Foerster

Myerson Solicitors

O'Hagan Meyer

Ostroff Injury Law

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Personius Melber

Pinsent Masons

Porter Hedges

Quinn Emanuel

Rabicoff Law

Reed Smith

Richards Layton

Riley Safer

Robbins LLP

Rogers Joseph O'Donnell

Searcy Denney

Setfords Solicitors

Shakespeare Martineau

Sheppard Mullin

Sher Tremonte

Sidley Austin

Simon Paschal

Skadden Arps

Spencer Fane

Stephenson Harwood

Stinson LLP

Stokoe Partnership Solicitors

TLT LLP

Taylor Wessing

Thompson Hine

Torridon Law

Troutman

Trowers & Hamlins

Vinson & Elkins

Walker Jones

White & Case

Wiggin LLP

Wilkinson Stekloff

Willkie Farr

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

Wright Hassall

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Abbott Laboratories

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers

American International Group Inc.

American Petroleum Institute Inc.

Associated Press

Balfour Beatty PLC

Beyond Finance Inc.

Biogen Inc.

Brigham Young University

British Broadcasting Corp.

Brown & Brown Inc.

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Client Services Inc.

Discover Bank

Federalist Society

Fortress Investment Group LLC

Freedom Mortgage Corp.

Glass Lewis & Co. LLC

Hisense Co. Ltd.

Ineos Group Ltd.

Institute for Justice

Internet Archive

Investments Ltd.

Lex Machina Inc.

LoanCare LLC

Macquarie Group Ltd.

Manchester United

Meta Platforms Inc.

National Veterans Legal Services Program

National Women's Law Center

Natural Resources Defense Council

Nokia Corp.

North Carolina Justice Center

North Carolina State Bar

Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Otis Worldwide Corp.

Progress Software Corp.

Severn Trent PLC

Sierra Club

The Bozzuto Group Inc.

The Cigna Group

The District of Columbia Bar

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The New York Times Co.

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

United Services Automobile Association

University of Iowa

University of Southern California

Washington & Lee University

Washington State Bar Association

Wells Fargo & Co.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Industry and Security

California Air Resources Board

California Attorney General's Office

Central Intelligence Agency

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Companies House

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Conduct Authority

Florida Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Legal Services Corp.

New Jersey Attorney General's Office

North Carolina Attorney General's Office

North Carolina Department of Justice

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Social Security Administration

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Government Accountability Office

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court